Juveniles on song
Gold and silver for Carthy in Madrid
THERE WERE good results for Wexford in the Irish Life Health National Indoor Juvenile championships in Athlone on Sunday.
First medal went to Eva Casey of Macamores. She won a bronze in the Under-14 shot putt with a best of 11.20m.
Jack Forde (St. Killian’s) looked very strong in the Under-16 shot putt, taking a silver medal with a best of 13.03m.
Sprinter, long jumper and combined events specialist Aisling Kelly of Taghmon competed in the Under-16 200m. Still suffering the after effects of whatever bug is doing the rounds right now, she finished third in her heat and did not progress.
In full health Aisling, who has previously medalled at national level, would have been a contender for a podium place. Time to re-charge the batteries and look to the outdoor season.
Blathnaid Fogarty of Enniscorthy just missed out on a place in the Under-17 200m final, with her time of 26.89s.
Nick Walkden of United Striders placed sixth in his Under-18 200m (24.90s) and did not progress to the final.
Enniscorthy’s Ross Daly managed to safely make his way through his Under-19 200m heat and qualify for the final. The final was a repeat of Ross’ heat as he once again went head-to-head with Shawn Benson of Ennis. Benson took the gold with Ross finishing in a good second place to take the silver.
Olivia Howe of Bree ran the Under-19 200m, finishing fifth in 28.90s.
There was good representation from the county in the middle distance events.
First up was Kevin O’Mahony of D.M.P. running in the Under-12 600m. In his heat Kevin went straight to the front so as to avoid getting caught up in the pack and to hold the inside lane. He relaxed the pace somewhat in the mid-section before finishing with a very fast last 100m to place fifth and qualify for the final.
In the final Kevin ran a classic race, conserving energy over the first lap, getting up into the action in fourth place over the second lap, and making his break on the back straight to storm home for a fantastic silver medal.
Sinéad O’Reilly of Menapians ran the Under-14 800m. Like Aisling Kelly, Sinéad was under pressure coming in to the event having had a bad cold during the week.
Running in a slow and tactical first heat, she found herself running wide to stay out of trouble. With her usual finishing kick in absentia, she crossed the line in seventh and did not progress to the final.
Myles Hewlett of United Striders was marked down as one of those to watch in the Under-14 800m, and with good reason. A couple of weeks back he blew the opposition away in the Leinsters with a fine display of front-running.
Like others in the Wexford camp, he hoped that his body was recovered from a recent bug. With only two to qualify automatically, he had to work hard in his heat.
He ran a sensible race, finishing a very close third and qualifying with a fastest time for the final. The final was a competitive affair from the get-go and Myles had to turn it on in the early laps to stay in the mix.
Then, just like that, the race turned into a tactical affair as the pace dropped, meaning only one thing: a last lap burn-up. Myles battled hard down the back straight but, with the turbo missing, he had to settle for fifth. It was still a fine result.
Fellow Strider Darragh Flannelly lined out in the Under-15 800m. Moving into third place in his heat with a lap to go, he held on to automatically qualify for the final.
The final followed the form of the Under-14 race, a quick first lap with a drop in pace for two laps and then a mad dash over the last 200m. Darragh got boxed in when the pace dropped and had to wait for a gap to open.
He was well placed in second with 100m to go but the pack closed and there was a scramble down the home straight. Darragh finished in the loneliest place of all - fourth - agonisingly close to the bronze but edged out by a nose.
Danika Gilshinan of St. Paul’s ran the Under-16 800m. The heat was slow and tactical with a helter-skelter last lap. She ran a steady race, gaining ground throughout to finish sixth in a time of 2.32m.
Adam O’Connor of United Striders contested the first heat of the Under-16 800m. Taking an early lead with a fast first 400m, he held on to it up to the last 100m when he paid for the snappy early pace, finishing fourth yet still qualifying for the final.
The final was fast and furious. Once again Adam took on the early pace and pulled them along. Holding third position over the first two laps, he drifted off the pace and crossed the line in seventh place.
Another Striders athlete, Aedan Rogers, had a tough heat in the Under-19 800m. The leaders slipped away from him on the last lap and he did not progress to the final.
Corrine Kenny of Gorey, running for D.S.D., qualified easily for the Under-17 800m final. Corrine looked like she was safe for the bronze but she was overhauled in the last ten metres and placed fourth.
Aoife Muldoon of United Striders jumped below her best in the Under-19 triple jump. The wet winter has not been conducive to training and Aoife has had very little jump practice. Nevertheless, she put in a consistent series of jumps and finished in fourth place with a best of 9.26m.
The county had a near one hundred per cent qualification rate in the hurdles.
Young Menapians club member Ruby Reynolds, who only recently took up competitive athletics, qualified for the final of the Under-13 60m hurdles, winning her heat convincingly.
Abbie Doyle of Bree was third in the same heat, the fastest of all the heats, and she also qualified for the final.
In the final both girls put on an exhibition of hurdling, with Ruby winning the gold in 9.62s and Abbie taking the silver with a new best of 9.73s - fantastic performances from both girls.
Enniscorthy’s Sadhbh Byrne placed third in her Under-15 60m hurdles heat and just missed out on making the final.
Orlaith Byrne of S.B.R. qualified for the Under-14 hurdles final. With legs a little weary, she went on to place eighth in the final.
Jack Forde of St. Killian’s and Darra Casey of Bree both qualified for the Under-16 60m hurdles final. Darra went on to take the bronze in nine seconds flat, while Jack placed fifth just 0.35s behind.
Darra’s clubmate, Sophie Codd, qualified for the Under-17 hurdles final and ended up finishing just outside the medals in fourth with a time of 9.37s.
At the European Masters championships held in Madrid last week, Jackie Carthy of Kilmore won a gold medal in the Over-45 5k cross-country and a silver in the 3000m.
Niall Sheil of St. Killian’s competed in the 1,500m and the 5k cross-country. He finished twelfth overall in both and helped the Irish cross-country team to silver medals.
Jackie and Niall were accompanied on the trip by coach Pavel Kolesnikov, and both expressed their gratitude to Pavel for all his diligent work over the months.
Fiona Kehoe of Kilmore finished second in last weekend’s highly-rated Dunboyne A.C. four-mile road race. Her time was 22:18m.
Fixtures: April 1 (11 a.m.), Mr Oil Wexford Intermediate road race championships, Enniscorthy (cancelled); April 2, Leinster 10 mile road championships, Raheny. WEXFORD CRASHED out of the Littlewoods National Camogie League Division 2 semi-final race with a crushing defeat against Westmeath in Athlone I.T. on Sunday.
The Slaneysiders failed to score from play in their defeat to Cork two weeks earlier and repeated the feat again versus Westmeath.
On top of that, the grand total of their 1-4 between the two games has all been scored by one player - Glynn-Barntown’s Chloe Cashe.
While the Seniors have been able to muddle along somewhat unaffected by the early season turmoil, the Wexford second string, so competitive last season, has fallen back to previous low levels of neglect.
Courtesy of a quick 1-1 from Pamela Greville, Westmeath had enough scores on the board to win the game by the end of the fourth minute.
It was 1-5 to nil at the close of the opening quarter, and Cashe finally got her side on the scoreboard soon after.
However, it proved only a moment’s respite. Meghan Dowdall netted twice in the remainder of the half which meant, despite a second Cashe free, the visitors trailed by a whopping 3-8 to 0-2 at the interval.
Greville netted shortly after the resumption but Cashe responded with Wexford’s last point.
Raharney clubwoman Greville completed her hat-trick at the end of the third quarter, giving the hosts an opportunity to make wholesale changes.
Wexford, meanwhile, had just the one available substitution. With only the same 17 or 18 committed girls travelling each week, it’s going to be difficult to go into the championship with any real hope.
They do have one last league game, a dead-rubber against Carlow on Sunday.
Wexford: Liza Bates; Nancy Dunphy, Michelle Harding, Aoife McCrea; Katie O’Connor, Chloe Cashe (0-3 frees), Leanne Foley; Laura Dempsey, Sorcha Foley; Victoria Burke, Orla Molloy, Shauna Kelly; Michelle Kehoe, Emma Doyle, Laura Kelly. Sub. - Emma O’Connor for Kelly.
Westmeath: Fiona Keating; Sarah King, Méabh Scally, Laura Doherty; Aoife Higgins, Fiona Leavy, Amy Cully; Sandra McGrath, Muireann Scally; Mairéad McCormack, Sheila McGrath (0-4), Denise McGrath; Ciara O’Looney (0-1 free), Pamela Greville (3-3, 0-1 free), Meghan Dowdall (2-4). Subs. - Hannah Core for Sheila McGrath, Ellie Conway (0-1) for Scally, Aoife Boyle for McCormack, Róisín Scally for Doherty, Caoimhe McCrossan for D. McGrath, Rebecca Croash for Greville, Aisling Egerton for Higgins, Shannon Lyons for Scally.
Referee: Mike Ryan (Tipperary). Wexford didn’t experience any joy in the Leinster Under-16 championship last weekend, with the ‘A’ team losing to Dublin by 1-14 to 1-8 while the ‘B’ side went down to Carlow on a 1-6 to 2-2 scoreline.
There will be reports on both games in next week’s edition.